The Ascendancy Wars - Backlash
by yellownotebook2
Summary: In the distant future, a galaxy still healing from past conflicts is taken by surprise when a new threat emerges from the Unknown - The Chiss Ascendancy's quick wit and brutal tactics gain them the upper hand in what looks to be a galaxy-wide war. A Jedi strike team has been assembled to infiltrate behind enemy lines - hoping to slow the tide of the invasion before it is too late.
1. 1

Turbolaser fire cut through the sky like lightning from a storm. The night had been quiet - so quiet that Jedi Knight Aru Naus had began to wonder if their plan would even work the way it was intended to.

It felt as if the plan would work. If they were not all blasted into pieces first. She could sense the apprehension of her teammates around her. A few of them wondered if they had made the right decision, joining this team. The right decision in trusting their lives with her.

The twi'lek checked her crash webbing for what felt like the hundredth time since the battle had began. She had never intentionally been shot down before, and the thought of it still wasn't particularly appealing. She concentrated on silencing these thoughts, knowing that her team mates' anxieties would only feed off of her own.

The Jedi was in one of several dozen ships of spread out across the hanger of the _Absolution_. Her GA-12 Blast Boat was battle-scarred and blackened, but supposedly it still functioned. Of the nine person team, hers was one of two craft designated to be escape vehicles. Fearing that their larger size would attract more fire on the way down, each of the escape vehicles only had one passenger inside.

 _Escape. Now_ that's _getting ahead of ourselves._ Aru's lekku gave a nervous twitch as the _Absolution_ sustained another heavy hit. She reached out to her friends around her, trying to convey a feeling of preparedness - to make them feel ready. It would not be long now.

Her silent count down reached it's end and she bowed her head, gripping the sides of her seat tightly. Distantly, she heard the sounds of the explosives going off. She could almost visualize it in her mind - the piercing white light tracing it's way along the underside of the _strike-_ class cruiser. The controlled demolition would rip the hull apart down the center, sending the ship falling in two directions. As it fell, the charges planted near the hanger would blast it open, spewing ship after ship into a free fall inside the planet's atmosphere.

The team felt relatively calm around her, given the circumstances, but one in particular still seemed unable to control their apprehension. She could feel it pulsing between them all - spreading like errant electricity through calm waters. The rest of the rest of the team was doing their best to stay focused, but she could feel the distraction growing.

Aru bowed her head and let the stillness of the force quiet her racing thoughts and feelings. It came over her like cold water muting a flame, stifling any insecurities or stress she had about the situation around her. She knew that whatever happened next, was the will of the force. The empty blackness displayed through the view port in front of her served as a perfect foundation on which to build her trance.

The _Absolution_ gave a massive mechanical roar as it split down the middle. The ships inside the hanger were rocked from their resting places - some even moving so far as to smash in to others. The Jedi felt a momentary spike of fear ebbing in from those around her, but quickly extended the reach of her own inner peace to engulf it. Once she had ensured that she herself was locked into a state of peace, she began to extend the feeling outwards - gripping her team with the calm stillness of her mind. It smoothed over the rough patches of doubt and anxiety, finally unifying them all in one linked sense of security.

The ship finally reached the approximate altitude and the final charges detonated. Their ships were sent reeling within the hanger, and for a moment the twi'lek woman considered the fact that not all of their ships would survive the destruction of the _Absolution_. She heard the roar of the wind and finally saw a sign of what was to come - massive clouds traced in gold and purple as the day's last light slipped away. Her view of the outside was only a quick glance - a flash across the viewport in front of her as the Blast Boat spun wildly across the metal floor.

Briefly, Aru caught glimpses of her team mates - their own crafts spraying sparks as they to were sent scraping wildly around towards the edge of the hanger. She dug deeper still into her calming trance, letting the wild spinning of her ship and the images through it's viewport fade away from her mind as she continued to hold together a peaceful connection between her team. The rest of them seemed to be following along well, despite that wild action.

In seconds, the rest of the hanger had disintegrated around them and they were now all tumbling free through the Takodonian atmosphere. The sky showed one massive flash of blue light after the other as lightning, laser fire, and proton torpedoes all mixed to create a storm of chaos around them.

As the Blast Boat hit the open air, Aru felt the sensation of her body being pulled upward. Gravity seemed to lose it's effect over anything inside of the ship. There was a massive crashing sound from the rear of the ship as one of the storage containers broke lose of it's hold. She could hear the sound of their weapons and survival supplies being strewn across the cargo area, but did not let this bother her.

Concentrating with everything she had, the twi'lek woman did her best to wrap the small ship completely within her will. She felt her team mates do the same in each of their respective vehicles and, as they fell, she began to get a decent idea of where they were all at in relation to each other.

Of the two dozen damaged space craft being released from the _Absolution_ as it was blown apart, four of them carried members of the strike team. Aru tried to relay a feeling of _togetherness_ as she imagined their crafts drawing closer to each other. She could feel the others pushing for the same, hoping to arrange the ships so that they would land near each other.

All around them, the sky erupted into crimson light. Clawcraft swarmed the fallen ships and they began to sustain heavy fire. Within seconds, two of the craft had been completely decimated. She felt no cries of pain or shock through the force, and for the first time Aru smiled to herself. The Chiss seemed to be picking off exactly the ships they had intended them too - the nicer, new-looking craft that had been programmed to power up as they hit free-fall. Their enemies were quite obviously picking and choosing what they shot down, relying on their scanners to tell them which ships had power - and their eyes, telling them which ships looked as if they could be a threat.

As the ground rushed up to meet them, the Clawcraft gave one final run through the group of falling ships. A fresh wave of blasts peppered the group, strafing some of the occupied ships and destroying a couple more of the others. Then, the squadron looped around and headed back for the battle above.

 _Now!_ Aru sent the thought out with urgency, hoping they would all understand what she meant. She reached up to small silver device strapped to her vest. As she pressed the top button on it, a massive parachute erupted from the rear of her ship. Her downward momentum pulled strongly against the camouflage parachute - the front end of the ship was whipped forward as the rear end's descent was slowed. The Jedi slammed hard against her crash webbing restraints - putting them to more of a test than anything previous had.

Aru sighed in relief as she counted three other parachute bursts. She could feel her allies' descent slowing with her own, and a second later she could hear the abandoned ships begin to crash land. Smashing against the vast, abandoned forest below them, the empty ships crackled through tree lines or scraped against metal as they met the debris of the _Absolution_.

In her joy, the Jedi had nearly released her own ship from her control. She realized suddenly that the treeline had become _very_ close. Quickly, she did her best to focus her will and tried to pull up on her vehicle through the force - hoping to at least cushion the final few seconds of her fall.

The grey blur of stormy skies transformed into the rough-and-tumble green of trees smashing beneath the weight of her ship. After only a second of this, a sharp crack signified that Aru's ship had found the ground. It was the last thing she heard before she blacked out.


	2. 2

Aru's heart beat seemed to bounce around her skull as consciousness slowly returned to her. Her whole body ached burned - though nothing felt horribly disturbed.

She could feel the thick humidity of Takodana instantly. Every pore of her body and article of her clothing felt as if it were wrapped in a thick, wet cloth. Each breath came as thick, difficult gulps as the air around her grew thicker. She knew then that something had gone wrong.

Her dizzy eyes struggled to focus as she blinked several times. When her vision became clear her fears were realized. The front view port of the ship was cracked, and obviously no longer keeping the air inside separate from the air outside. It would be unsuitable for traveling anywhere outside the atmosphere.

Through the damaged viewport, the only thing she could see was a mass of dark green leaves. They pressed up against the glass - leaving trails of moisture and steam running along it. Though they darkened the cabin, she could still tell that there was light somewhere behind the branches. She must have been out the entire night.

Panic flared up within her - in the bright morning light, their ships would be much easier to see. Though they had taken precautions to disguise their craft as useless and damaged beyond repair, that may not stop their enemy from investigating them further. They had planned to use the cover of night to make sure their disguised landing pods were well hidden. Aru, at least, no longer had that opportunity.

The twi'lek calmed herself before reaching out to her team mates, careful to keep her anxieties firmly within her own mind. She was pleasantly surprised by what she found. The rest of the team seemed to be not only conscious and aware but, remarkably, undamaged by their fall from the _Absolution_. She sensed a few scrapes and bruises, but none of the broken bones - or worse - that she had anticipated.

Reaching out to the team seemed to help ease the soreness within her own muscles. The feeling of connection between them felt like she had scratched s particularly obnoxious itch deep within her subconscious.

She reached forward and tapped the release at the center of her crash webbing. It retracted into the seat behind her with a noisy, crackling sound. She touched the sore spots on her shoulders - where the webbing had actually torn through her clothing and rubbed against her pale purple skin. Though they were painful, they were not serious injuries. She knew that a small spray of bacta would take care of them quickly, once she had access to it.

Aru's heavy combat boots gripped the floor as she stood up - fighting gravity. The nose of the ship was pointed firmly downwards, making it difficult to maintain standing without falling forward. Slowly, she turned around - gripping the arm rest of her seat for stability - and took stock of her surroundings.

The inside of the ship had fared pretty well in the crash - partly because anything that could move had been removed or firmly bolted down. Aside from the large crack down the main viewport, the rest of the ship looked to be relatively undamaged.

The twi'lek wondered to herself if they had the resources - or time - to repair it. She did not like the idea of trying to squeeze the entire team of nine into just one of the escape ships. That would be an option only if they other Blast Boat had held up better than her own.

She pushed the thought out of her mind, promising herself that she would come up with a better plan at some other point between now and the end of their mission. Right now, she had plenty more to focus on.

Climbing laboriously to the rear end of the ship, Aru pressed then manual door release and slid open one of the wall-mounted storage bins. Inside, several sections of synth rope secured two bulky backpacks. Before removing either, she reached into the front of one and pulled something from it.

She instantly felt more comfortable, with her weapon in her hand. Though she was far from the most powerful warrior in the Jedi Order, her skills with a lightsaber had gotten her out of more than a few sticky situations. She turned the small silver cylinder over in her hand a few times, feeling it's familiar smooth surface, before returning it to it's proper place on her belt.

A few moments later, Aru crawled slowly down the open landing ramp of her ship, out in the Takodana air. Gripping the platform with both hands, she moved her body to the ramp's end and swung her legs over it's side, letting them hang freely. Once she had settled, the twi'lek pulled the two packs from inside the ship out using the rope that had tied them up.

Looking over he ship, she realized that she wouldn't have to worry about being spotted - the majority of the blast boat was under the tree line, completely covered with branches. Only the last few feet of it's tail extended higher - a portion that she thought would be difficult to spot.

As she fished the small communicator out of her pack and flipped it into the active position, the Jedi reached out with the force - letting the connection with her team come back to her like a warm embrace. She felt the others respond in kind, all eight of them seeming to open there minds and hearts to the meld. A couple of them were close - very close - and the rest weren't more than a couple of miles. Somehow, they had managed to keep their formation close during the fall.

The little device in her hand let out a small crackle of static, causing her lekku to shudder in surprise. Aru thumbed another button on the machine and a single, pulsing tone sounded out - one that would hopefully be picked up by the other's waiting communicators. After this tone died out, another quickly followed it - and then another. At least two of her allies were listening in. The generic tones were the only communications the team were to exchange. Verbal communication was to be limited to emergencies only, as it likely could be picked up by the Chiss forces on the planet.

The Knight turned the volume down on her communicator to a low setting, and slipped it onto her belt next to her lightsaber. Taking care to double-check that the bags were secured together, she pushed them off of the ramp and down into the forest below. Once she heard them make contact with the ground, she jumped after them.


End file.
